Eminem has revealed that his recent altercation with comedian Sacha Baron Cohen at the MTV movie awards was staged. That's right, Slim Shady knew he was going to get Brüno's bum in his face.

"Sacha called me when we were in Europe and he had an idea to do something outrageous at the movie awards," Eminem told Rap Radar yesterday. "I'm a big fan of his work so I agreed to get involved with the gag. I'm thrilled that we pulled this off better than we rehearsed it. It had so many people going 'nuts', so to speak."

Viewers were all atwitter after the weekend broadcast, when Cohen's Brüno character "accidentally" fell on top of the rapper. Brüno, it should be noted, was wearing little more than a silver thong. "[Eminem] stormed out with his entourage in tow with cameras rolling," the Associated Press reported.

Eminem might indeed have "stormed out" – but he did so suppressing giggles. "After the ceremony I went back to my hotel and laughed uncontrollably for about three hours," he said.

This confirms the report by Scott Aukerman, a writer for MTV, who commented on his blog that "the Brüno/Eminem incident was staged ... They rehearsed it at dress and yes, it went as far as it did on the live show then". Aukerman's blogpost was later removed.

Eminem's evening did contain one unpleasant surprise, however. Arriving back at the hotel, the rapper discovered that he had been robbed. While early reports claimed Eminem lost more than $60,000 (£37,000) in valuables – including a laptop and a diamond necklace – the rapper set the record straight. "The only thing was that I lost a Nike watch," he said. "The rest it is made-up like half the other stuff out there."